Laboratory science
Moving mouse strains without moving mice
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Peres and Roe show that laboratory mouse strains travel as commodities and sentient bodies; infection, welfare and data-quality concerns are shifting mobility from live mice toward embryos and gametes.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Qualitative / archival — Two-week ethnography plus supply-chain interviews on laboratory mouse strain mobility
- N
- N=23 · 23 in-depth interviews; ethnography over 2 separate weeks at UK sites
- Population
- UK laboratory animal procurement, biobank, and breeding supply-chain workers
- Outcome
- Shift from live mouse transport toward embryos/gametes under biosecurity and welfare pressures
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Key findings
Global repositories such as Jackson Laboratory and EMMA make strain movement normal. A journey threatens consistency. Values of biosecurity, sentient welfare and reliable knowledge assemble so that live transport is increasingly replaced by non-sentient germinal products and surrogate rederivation.
Methodology
Longitudinal ethnography across two separate weeks (a UK institution with a biobank; a UK breeding/procurement team) plus 23 in-depth interviews with supply-chain informants, framed by animal-mobilities theory and feminist materialism.
Limitations
This is UK procurement ethnography, not a census of all global mouse traffic, nor an animal-welfare RCT of shipping crates. It does not measure infection rates of every journey.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Live mouse-strain transport is being displaced by embryos and gametes for welfare and biosecurity, a contemporary mobility story that sits beside historical vivisection and farm-lab hybrids rather than repeating them.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
For present-day laboratory practice, interviews can be joined to ethnographic observation. Peres and Roe combined two weeks of observation at a UK biobank and a breeding and procurement team with 23 in-depth interviews to show biosecurity, welfare and data-quality values pushing mouse strain transport from live animals toward embryos and gametes.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
Tensions this paper is part of
From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
Live mouse-strain transport is being displaced by embryos and gametes for welfare and biosecurity, a contemporary mobility story that sits beside historical vivisection and farm-lab hybrids rather than repeating them.
- Supports · Liddell's farm and experimental neurosis
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Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.